West Bengal rural polls on July 8

Nominations will begin from Friday, June 9, and will be accepted till June 15 (except on Sunday/ holiday)

The panchayat elections in West Bengal will take place on 8 July, the state election commission announced on Thursday.

Covering 22 of the state’s districts (except Kolkata), there will be two-tier elections for Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts, and three-tier elections for the other 20 districts.

There are 3,317 gram panchayats (58,513 constituencies, 63,229 seats), 341 panchayat samitys (9,730 constituencies), and 928 zila parishad constituencies in the fray. Around 5.67 crore voters will exercise their voting rights through 61,636 polling stations. The polling will take place from 11 am to 3 pm, and the ballot papers, and boxes will be used.

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Nominations will begin on Friday, June 9, and will be accepted till June 15 (except on Sunday/ holiday). The date for scrutiny of nominations is June 17, and the last date for withdrawal of candidature is June 20.

The model code of conduct came into force immediately after the announcement was made by Rajiv Sinha, the newly appointed state election commissioner. Sinha has earlier served as state’s chief secretary.